6.29.2005

Ireland Second Richest Country in European Union!

According to The End of the Rainbow (New York Times), Ireland now has the second highest per capita G.D.P. in the European Union. As an Irish-American and dual-citizen this news makes me happy and proud. I last visited Ireland in 1992 when unemployment was 20 percent. At least one Irish relative desperately asked me to tell my American friends to buy Irish products. Clearly a change in policy was needed. Says The Times:

And change Ireland did. In a quite unusual development, the government, the main trade unions, farmers and industrialists came together and agreed on a program of fiscal austerity, slashing corporate taxes to 12.5 percent, far below the rest of Europe, moderating wages and prices, and aggressively courting foreign investment. In 1996, Ireland made college education basically free, creating an even more educated work force.

7 Comments:

Anonymous makes a good point, reminding me that the EU does not include all of Europe, notably Norway and Switzerland. I have corrected the post. (The New York Times article did not make this mistake.)